Tag: poems in 2026

In Vain

The moon said Get Up!
And while the cat
and cardinal
insisted I had some purpose
for the day,
I was not convinced.

I AM not convinced.

This slow and useless
plodding on floorboards
that hold now nearly
30 years of footsteps
seems circuitous.

I can, of course,
enumerate —
if you were to ask —
point out the notches
and plaques,
consider the possible
one heart, one life, one pain
but those are slow to come
at 4 when the soft known comfort
of sheets and dreams
seems the best I can hope for
these days, when even footsteps
have become formidable.

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Connecticut Poet, Emily Dickinson, Jen Payne, napowrimo.net, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems in 2026, poems in difficult times, turning 60

Creativity Poetry

April Fool

I wake up with a start
realize that I am, myself,
the April fool
still thinking I have control
(or hope)
of making it out alive
all these years
swimming against a tide
tilting at windmills
chasing wild geese
pushing boulders up hills
when in reality
I am just the monster
at the end of the book
silly old
silly, old me

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, napowrimo.net, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems in 2026, poems in difficult times, turning 60

Creativity Poetry

To Get to the Other Side

One coyote howl
wakes us at 4
and we both,
the cat and I,
move around
blankets
and curtains
hoping to see
the creature
cross the road
ask each other why?
and for what purpose?
laugh at our inside joke
before falling back into dreams
neither one of us can translate —
coyotes and gunman,
snap traps and mice,
the violent world outside.

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, napowrimo.net, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems in 2026, poems in difficult times

Creativity Poetry

Can I sail through the changin’ ocean tides?

Post author By Jen Payne
Post date April 1, 2026
No Comments on Can I sail through the changin’ ocean tides?

I’m dreaming about the man in the field
its autumn backdrop oddly out of place
with the spring cacophony
that filters through my nighttime window;
he’s talking about collective trauma —
the seeping-in of our wild world
on jet streams and ethernets
on brainwaves and internets —
a scrolling litany of the everything
we were not built to absorb
and the everything against which
we are powerless;
a continental, monumental shift
beneath our feet
in a landslide brought me down
epic crescendo sort of way
I’m sure Stevie never imagined.

Tags #NaPoWriMo, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, napowrimo.net, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poems in 2026, poems in difficult times

Creativity Poetry

The wheel is come full circle

Post author By Jen Payne
Post date March 29, 2026
No Comments on The wheel is come full circle

It is No Kings in March
and a one-man King Lear
opines from a makeshift stage
in a Union building
on the bank of a river;
he is boisterous
and profound,
a shapeshifter
come to teach us
again
about the failings
of ego and power
here in this space
that smells of
picket signs and
hard-won fights,
placards of victory
line the walls
while outside,
the wind has changed
as bodies are counted
to move the scale of battle more.

Tags Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, King Lear, No Kings, poems in 2026, poems in difficult times, poems while wintering

Creativity Poetry

The Futile Pursuit of Hope

Post author By Jen Payne
Post date March 26, 2026
No Comments on The Futile Pursuit of Hope

I can’t keep throwing books out
just because I’ve lost patience with words,
even the ones meant to console
my wintering spirit;
there is little consolation these days
where hope is a burden of expectations
I want to stab violently with a fork
that instead finds its way into another
slice of cake I keep hidden beneath my bed,
its sweet, sweet comfort
savored between the puzzle of dreams
that have so many layers,
and so many meanings,
one might think I was fucking Jung,
a rabid affair that keeps me trapped
in this godforsaken space
analyzing and processing
analyzing and processing
analyzing and processing
still here again always…
a bonfire stack of books by the door
my Plan B should the promises keep failing.

Tags Carl Jung, Connecticut Poet, Jen Payne, Memory, poems after surgery, poems in 2026, poems in difficult times, poems while wintering

Creativity Poetry

Broken Record

John Lennon sang about peace
when I was only 5
but then he was shot in the back
four times, a few years later
imagine.
we all kept singing though
even after that
gave the peace sign to each other
in a wink-wink someday sort of way
like we were in on a big secret;
it was coming, any day now,
2,000 years of peacemakers
and peace preachers
had told us so
before they were killed, too,
point-blank or otherwise;
told us, told our parents,
told their parents who
kissed in the streets
when John Lennon was all but 5
imagine.
and so it goes,
peace dream
pipe dream
pish posh.